Arbitrary tile and WMS sources
Probed for projection and zoom range, then registered as first-class layers.
Industries · Field work · Whitepaper
Bring your own data. Take it back out.
Survey and geospatial crews already have authoritative data. What they lack is a field client that carries all of it offline, credits it correctly, and does not quietly re-project or degrade it on the way in.
01 / Problem statement
What actually goes wrong.
Field geospatial work breaks on three unglamorous things.
Import fidelity. A client that silently reprojects, simplifies or drops attributes turns authoritative data into an approximation. The crew then cannot tell whether a discrepancy is in the ground or in the software.
Attribution and license. If the output of a field session becomes part of a deliverable, every layer that informed it has a license implication. A client that does not record which layer was visible cannot support that.
Offline completeness. Partial offline — the basemap but not the overlays, the geometry but not the attributes — is worse than none, because it looks complete.
02 / Mechanism
How NavTrax addresses each one.
Each entry names the mechanism rather than the benefit, so it can be evaluated rather than believed.
- Import without silent transformation
- GeoJSON, KML and shapefile exports import with attributes intact. Tile and WMS sources register with their declared projection and zoom range, probed rather than assumed.
- Layer records, not layer URLs
- Every registered source carries provider, attribution, license, update cadence, coverage envelope and data type. That record is what makes a session auditable.
- Attribution on screen
- Every visible layer is credited in the view, not in a settings page, so a screenshot in a report carries its own provenance.
- Complete offline regions
- A region is the whole enabled stack for an area and zoom envelope, with a recorded epoch per layer. Nothing is partially present.
- Organization distribution
- A layer published by the organization reaches every crew device scoped by role, versioned, without anybody emailing a file.
- Honest capability boundary
- This is structured field capture and precise measurement. It is not RTK survey software, and the app does not imply that it is.
03 / Capabilities
In the field, this is what you have.
Vector import with attributes
GeoJSON, KML and shapefile exports, attributes preserved.
Precise measurement
Distance, area and bearing, with the datum stated.
Export in the formats you use
GPX, KML, GeoJSON and CSV.
Organization layer distribution
Published once, scoped by role, versioned.
Provenance recorded per session
Which layers were visible, at which epoch, under which license.
04 / Reference
| Type | Import | Offline | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| XYZ tiles | URL template | Yes | Zoom range probed |
| WMS / WMTS | GetMap URL | Yes | Projection read from capabilities |
| Vector tiles | PBF endpoint | Yes | Style layers composited in order |
| GeoJSON | File | Yes | Attributes preserved |
| KML / KMZ | File | Yes | Styling honoured where present |
| Shapefile export | File | Yes | Attributes preserved |
| API sources | Endpoint | Cached | Cadence stated per source |
05 / Process
Traced, node by node.
Authoritative in. Auditable out.
Custom layers are Pro. Organization-wide distribution, audit and SSO are Enterprise.